Surviving Workplace Violence

On December 13th Library Director Susan Pieperwith the Paulding County Library in Ohio offered this timely post on Publib:

I shared this short video with my staff during a staff meeting this fall. Homeland Security released it and in light of the recent tragic shootings, I think every library staff and every citizen should watch it.:

The video was produced with a Department of Homeland Security Grant by the City of Houston Mayor’s Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security. It includes three key concepts ~

RUN – When an active shooter is in your vicinity:

If there is an escape path, attempt to evacuate

Leave your belongings behind.

Help others escape if possible.

Prevent others from entering the area.

Call 911 when you are safe.

HIDE – When Escape is not possible:

Lock and / or blockade the door.

Silence your cell phone.

Hide behind large objects.

Remain very quiet.

FIGHT – As a last resort, and only if your life is in danger:

Attempt to incapacitate the shooter.

Act with physical aggression.

Improvise weapons.

Commit to your actions.

In addition to those key concepts of Run, Hide, and Fight – the video also discusses how to interact with law enforcement.

911 – When Law Enforcement Arrives:

Remain calm and follow instructions.

Keep you hands visible at all times.

Avoid pointing or yelling.

Know that help for the injured is on the way.

The information provided in the video has been endorsed by numerous law enforcement agencies.

Libraries are certainly not exempt from workplace violence. Many have disaster plans in place and policies and procedures that are meant to reduce the likelihood of violence. However, they are open to the public and certainly permeable to people with ill-intent. Many are also open to an increasing population of concealed carry permit holders – including patrons and staff.

American Nut and Arms

The discussion of concealed carry by staff and patrons played out as a major meme and theme on Publib at the end of 2011. Many library staff members came out as staunch proponents of concealed carry. Others could not see the point. However, gunfire, gun-accidents, and gun related incidents all have one thing in common – the presence of guns. With each act of random violence that plays out in the media, the reaction from a fearful public includes the purchase of more guns. So, there is an ongoing expectation of gun violence and an ongoing increase of people armed with guns.

In addition to guns, the United States has another crisis of sorts – something that law enforcement and public libraries experience every day. Psychiatric hospitals closed throughout the US in response to the 1975 Supreme Court decision in O’Connor v Donaldsonthat non-dangerous individuals cannot be confined and Addington v Texasrequiring convincing evidence for involuntary commitment. It was hoped that many of the abuses experienced by people involuntarily committed – as dramatized in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest would be remedied. The number of beds for psychiatric patients in 1955 was one for every 300 Americans. By 2005, that number was reduced to one in every 3000 with over 90% of those committed to forensic cases. So, the reality is psychiatric beds are no longer available in the US and other institutions without specialized training – including public libraries – must cope with the repercussions.

Drugs such as Thorazine (chlorpromazine) have helped many people cope with mental health issues. But, many people go untreated and the prison and jail populations have become the de facto mental health facilities – providing incapacitation often without any truly effective rehabilitative treatment options. Many may come out worse than they were when they went in – maxing out their sentences in Supermax facilities in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.

The State of Rhode Island has the highest rate of severely mentally ill people in the US – at around 7.4% – almost twice the average of other States*. In addition, it has some of the highest rates of illegal drug use and highest rates of untreated drug and alcohol addictions. So, most public library directors in Rhode Island will interact with people with severe mental illness problems and drug and alcohol abuse problems. Rhode Island also has some of the strongest gun control measures in the US – although that does not stop gun violence from occurring. When you look at the big picture and consider the likelihood that you will interact with people who have guns, who have mental illness and may have ill intent – it is always best to be prepared.

I highly recommend that libraries partner with their police departments and look at the training offered by the Memphis CIT program. Their de-escalation training works. Community partnerships can save lives and help redirect people from jail and prison to appropriate mental health resources.

Favorite Handy Reference Book: People, Places, and Things

When patrons come to me at the reference desk, there’s one book I readily pull out to consult. It’s not a replacement for checking the catalog but it’s a helpful starting point for patrons looking for a particular topic. This handy reference book is titled People, Places, and Things, a reference book once published by OCLC.

People, Places, & Things is a reference tool listing popular LCSH headings in alphabetical order with corresponding Dewey call numbers. (I found a description of the book on page 4 in a 2003 newsletter by OCLC) Depending on the topic you’re looking up, there may be more than one Dewey number assigned to it.

The book doesn’t list every topic patrons ask at the desk but it’s still useful. Sometimes I have to think of another term for a subject if I can’t find it listed. If it’s still not there after looking it up, I’ll consult the catalog. At times the book been a back up for looking up call numbers when our catalog was offline.

We *do* need our education!

I discovered People, Places, & Things when I first started 5 years ago. It was one of several reference resources we kept on the History-Biography reference desk. (The copyright date is 2001 on the copy we have) Since then this book has been invaluable to me.

When I worked in our Popular Library Division on the first floor, I continued to use this reference resource because patrons frequently came to our reading room first. Patrons would tell me what subject area they needed; I’d look it up in the book and write down the Dewey number. With that in hand, they could locate what they needed in the other reading rooms. When I returned to non-fiction reference, People, Places, & Things came along too. It’s worked well for me and a great tool.

Virtualization of the Patron Experience

This very interesting article in USAToday about the future of retail and virtualization of the customer experience demonstrates how big data can affect and effect virtualized experiences for their patrons:

Libraries compete with online information resources in much the same way the traditional retailers compete with online sellers.

Question ~ How will libraries adapt over the next ten years?

Discussion ~My work in managing/developing online catalogs – with 20,000+ medical equipment / supply products and 7,000+ multi-website display products exceeded what library catalogs do and from an SEO standpoint would beat out Amazon for Google placement. Traditional retail could not compete because of delivery and cost. BestBuy is a great place to put your hands on tech, but the prices are much higher. As e-commerce websites become more and more user-friendly – where you have good photos of products and good descriptions, the whole process ends up making all products into commodities with the lowest cost determining purchase.

With libraries, the focus has generally been on maintaining the status quo and keeping current bureaucracies in place until they can retire. This is not any different for any other bureaucracy – it is a natural inclination – not library specific to simply maintain. With the focus on cost of maintaining services though, without innovation the perception of value diminishes. One of the best things I have seen recently in libraries is the introduction of Makerbots as a library resource. It is those sorts of high-priced shared resources that extend the value and bring people inside the library systems.

But, the issue does become lowest cost. As we see transportation cost rise, the casual trip to the library could cost $10 in gas. What would $10 purchase virtually? The associated costs of operating libraries – broken down between the people who continue to use them and the disproportionate number of people who don’t would add additional cost to each real visit. As information becomes a commodity the lowest cost will determine where we purchase. That does not mean that the value of libraries as a sense of place and source of inspiration does not add a real value to information consumption.

“I should have been regularly backing up my MacBook. I shouldn’t have daisy-chained two such vital accounts I shouldn’t have used the same e-mail prefix across multiple accounts I should have had a recovery address that’s only used for recovery without being tied to core services. I shouldn’t have used Find My Mac.” —

To me, this is the result of short-term profit maximization at the corporate level mixed with the path of least resistance at the user level. Companies can operate cheaper, more efficiently up to the point of the hack in the cloud and maximize profits. Users don’t have to do too much to enjoy the convenience of the cloud up to the point of the hack. Yet, with each successful hack, the knowledge of how to hack becomes known globally – greatly increasing risk to all users and all companies using the cloud.

Fortunately, OSL did step up their security a bit with pins, but it created inconvenience to the administrators and the users. One of the librarians who witnessed the events leading to the change told me that the battle for security over short-term convenience was ugly but she did not want to speak about it publicly. I can understand that – given the justifiable paranoia over having the circulation records used for identity theft and no one wanting to take responsibility. But, all it takes is just a bit of laziness at the top levels and bad policy to put everyone at risk. And, unfortunately, the first rule of Library Fight Club is not to talk about Library Fight Club so everyone does not know of the risk. Knowledge of risk is limited to insiders who may not know how to manage risk and insure accountability.

I think the real point of the Mat Honan article is that the writer was not dumb – he is most likely in the top 2% of people who understand technology. So, every ‘error’ he made – which would not be considered errors by the other 98% of us – is a risk.

The people working in libraries most likely represent the upper 30 or 40% of people who understand technology simply by being surrounded by books and publicly paid for technology. But, as gatekeepers to those resources they create the impression of expertise. Some are experts, but really most are not. Standing next to a pile of books does not mean you read them. Being able to turn on a computer does not mean you know how it works. Being responsible for information security does not mean that the information is secure.

What we can take from the Mat Honan article is the humility of the author in showing that he failed himself and should have known better. There are many, many people in administrative positions including libraries that are responsible for information security who would never admit that they know not what they do. There are many, many people in corporations that will never admit or may not even know that their systems have been or are compromised. All we can hope for is strong laws that mandate reporting and at least a few people such as the author of the Wired article to own up to what they do not know as an example for the other 98% of us.

It used to be that you would need to be able to configure Satan and really have a strong grasp of command line interfaces and operating systems to be a hacker. You really would need advanced knowledge and some fairly sophisticated resources to hack. Not any more.

Backtrack : http://www.backtrack-linux.org/ can be installed very easily and used by novice hackers with ill intent utilizing easy to follow step-by-step instructions on Youtube. Just using one of my high gain antennas with a little laptop, I can war drive or sit in my house and see many, many exploitable WIFI services locally with little or no protection. I could crack a WEP in about 2 minutes, but so many people now rarely even bother to protect their WIFI. They are just happy that it works out of the box. As an ethical hacker, I will never exploit those vulnerabilities. But, the time when exploitation was limited to those with wilful intent, advanced knowledge of computer systems along with strong social engineering skills has passed. We are now in an era where a hack can be easily accomplished with a bit of simple social engineering (SPOKEO anyone?), the intent and common access to a computer. In fact, with very little knowledge about computer systems it would be very easy to inadvertently exploit a system using Backtrack without intent.

I have come here not to bury Publib, but to praise it.

Ghost of Publib

Last year, OCLC announced that they would graciously host the popular Publib listserve. With 10 thousand + subscribers representing libraries throughout the world, it certainly represented a win/win situation. OCLC – which sells its products to libraries would host and subscribers – who buy products from OCLC could continue to subscribe. OCLC would benefit from the feel-good PR and the ability to data-mine and Publib subscribers could continue to enjoy the communication resource they have contributed to since the early 1990s.

While being hosted by UC Berkeley and Webjunction, Google and Yahoo! and all of the other major search engines readily indexed the discussions by Publib contributors. Even now, a quick engine search of almost any topic regarding public libraries renders a link to a Publib posting from previous years.

But, all of those links are now broken and the provenance of indexing has been destroyed. Although you may still view cached files, the only way to get live files is to go behind the wall set up by OCLC. Access to the root directory is by subscription only, so the search engines would no longer index the content: http://listserv.oclc.org/ So, everyone who searches any topic ever posted on Publib must now go through OCLC and search the files that they exclusively control.

What a great benefit this must represent to corporate interests of OCLC! Thousands and thousands of postings on every topic regarding public libraries, created by uncompensated authors, and they now control all of the content and its indexing for almost no associated cost and can monitor and data-mine all usage by the library community. OCLC established and litigated ownership and control of Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) in OCLC v The Library Hotel and was recently accused of antitrust by SkyRiver and Innovative Interfaces. Does OCLC now effectively have intellectual property rights to all of the work by Publib contributors?

Hosting a listserv is really not a big deal. It is fairly low level technology and relatively easy to manage. With a bit of server space, Open Source programs such as Mailman can be set up that can manage a huge number of subscribers:

Hosting by a non-corporate entity such as a library school or a large library system would have made much more sense. The original iteration with UC Berkeley hosting nested the conversation in a bastion of free speech. Is removing and blocking indexing censorship? Is vetting all new subscribers appropriate? Does the ability to restrict access represent ownership? Does hosting a listserve and controlling access to everything previously written grant intellectual property rights and equate to ownership? Is Publib just another example of intellectual outsourcing?

Time will tell. But, at this time Publib is a ghost of what it once represented.

Fashion Police at the Library – No Ifs, Ands or Butts . . .

Melissa Davidson – Staunton, Virginia asks:

How are you handling the saggy pants trend? I’m talking about when the waist of the pants is clearly below the bum and heading towards the knees.

To which the Publib Chorus responds:

1920s woman daring to wear pants!

Wendy Wright – Denman Island, BC CANADA ~ Ridiculous though the style is, my crystal ball offers some predictions for five years from now if we try to control teens’ ever-changing fashion trends. In 2017…

~ No-one will be wearing sagging pants.

~ Today’s teens will be voting, taxpaying adults.

~ Those adults will not be using or supporting a library where they once felt unwelcome or talked down to.

Melissa does not specify teens in her query, yet most of us assume we are discussing this age group. For a bit of perspective, we might ask ourselves whether we would follow through on an adult infringement of a rule governing dress. For example, if we are comfortable suggesting to an adult patron that her shirt emblazoned with expletives is inappropriate in the library, but would then tactfully ignore a 30-year-old’s colourful boxers, then our library’s policy should reflect that practice, for all patrons. It is easy to fall into the trap of creating double standards for adults and teens, who have a nose for hypocrisy.

Jacobean Embroidery Leaf

Nann Blaine Hilyard ~ In our community there are adults who wear saggy baggy pants. Not as saggy as the teens but plenty baggy. The current fashion is that the back pockets (which fall on the thigh rather than the butt) have lots of embroidery. The juxtaposition is that men with saggy baggies accompany women in leggings (and jeggings, which are stretch denim leggings). Often the women are plump. (Where are Stacy and Clinton (What Not to Wear) when we need them?)

Lisa Richland – Greenport, NY ~ Melissa- Are you talking about patrons or staff? Because I ignore the patrons’ dress habits, and tell staff when their dress is inappropriate. In the case of staff, those low hanging trousers are in addition an impediment to mobility. And if it is just the aesthetics of the style, I avert my eyes.

Dusty Gres – Vidalia, GA ~ Depends on what else is showing, actually, but here is a true story in the daily life: One of my Branch Clerks is a retired (25 years) Army Master Sergeant. I recently overheard this transaction:

Clerk to teenage patron: There you go. I think you will really like this book. Have a nice day, and son, pull up your pants.

“Pull your pants up and buy a belt ’cause no one wants to see your underwear or the crack of your butt.’ If you walk into somebody’s office with your hair uncombed and a pick in the back, and your shoes untied, and your pants half down, tattoos up and down your arms and on your neck, and you wonder why somebody won’t hire you?” “‘They don’t hire you ’cause you look like you’re crazy,’ the mayor said.”

Nehru in his jacket

Steve Benson ~ I think it’s a goofy fashion but any goofier than bell bottoms or nehru jackets? The boys aren’t exposing their back ends because they seem to always have very nice underwear to go with the saggy pants. My response is to ignore it.. . . But why do you hope they listen? Doesn’t every generation challenge the tastes of their elders? My flag and bra burning, tie-dye and bell bottom wearing, free loving, status quo disdaining contemporaries mostly grew up to be conservative republicans. Wait out this current young generation, ignore where the waistline of their pants falls to, and eventually they will age into us. What is really worth paying attention to are the thoughts rattling around in their minds.

Chris Truex ~ What’s with these kids, with their hula hoops and hippity-hop music!? Get a haircut! I don’t understand why some 13 year old girl can walk around in spandex with “Juicy” across the backside, and there are no policies for that, but seeing 2 inches of some kid’s boxer shorts causes a riot. Why in the world does anyone care about kids sagging? I’m sure constantly hassling them about style will do wonders in terms of outreach.

Shahin Shoar ~ Let them be! What I find not so pleasant is seeing half of someone’s back end hanging out when sitting on a chair or bending down to look at lower shelves;but hey that’s life, not everything is pleasant to my eyes!

Manya Shorr ~ Shouldn’t the issue be behavior and not dress? We really shouldn’t let our personal tastes get in the way of good public service.

Joseph N. Anderson – Logan, Utah ~ I’m surprised that this trend is back again. In the late 90s, I was one of those kids who probably disturbed the library staff with some of my fashion choices including sagging pants. Thankfully, the staff never turned it into a bad library experience for me.

ConnieJo Ozinga ~ Kevin O’Kelly posted: Ah yes, I’ve seen quite a lot of posterior cleavage. I don’t think you need sagging pants for this. We have just finished an interior renovation/construction project and I saw way too much posterior cleavage from those crews.

Jo Choto – Frederick, MD ~ If obscenity laws aren’t contravened, I don’t see that it matters if young men want to waddle around like penguins. Essentially, their butts are covered by something, whether it’s several sets of shorts or long shirts, so no harm, no foul. I am more troubled by pre-teen/tween girls who are barely covered at all, though this isn’t such a big problem in the winter!

Darryl Eschete ~ If a kid’s pants are an obvious hindrance to his safe and proper movement, we will ask the kid to pull them up lest they trip and fall on the stairs. I personally have also asked kids who drag their feet (and untied shoes) to tie their shoes and walk correctly, as their shuffling steps make a lot of noise. Dress and behavior are related and can have this sort of complicated interplay. Pardon me. I meant “…lest *HE* trip and fall on the stairs.”

Heian Fashion

Kathleen Stipek ~ I think that it is a very bad idea to pass laws about the droopy drawers look. Some young men are very concerned about the aesthetic of the look. I have seen some wearing multiple layers of skivvies that are as carefully color-matched as a Heian lady’s sleeves dangling outside her screens. I have also seen some that suggest to me that laundry soap is not part of a particular young man’s knowledge base.

If we truly want to lose this look, the law side is a bad one as are injunctions from elders which merely turn droopy drawers into a rebellion and perhaps even a matter of principle. What we need will cost some money, but it will be brutally effective. Young women whom these young men would love to impress need to be recruited and tested for loud, high-pitched, giggles. Little groups of 2 or 3 should be posted strategically in any given area, and whenever they see some droopy drawers, they point, giggle, and shriek with laughter. The young men may begin wearing their pants up around their armpits, but that’s a risk we have to take. The young women will have to be paid something for each session, but the price and the shrieks will be worth it. Cruel, I know, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Julie Andrews ~ I’m not at all bothered by people with hoodies up. Half the population is walking around like that! It’s cold!!! Even if it’s not as cold indoors, it’s just easier to leave it up.Take it off and you have messy hair. Surely hood-head is a fashion faux pas too?

Tina Shelton – Carrollton, TX ~ I just have to comment because I saw a young man WAS wearing a belt on his saggy, baggy britches! The shorts that show are the top pair over a bottom pair of underwear. My question is why bother? I have to be careful because every time I see this type of outfit, I just want to smirk loudly.

Prison Fashion

Chris Ely ~ Why bother? It’s fashion. Though back when I was working at a place where part of my job was dealing with juvenile offenders. I was told by juvie officials that it began due to a prison having the bright idea to issue pants to prisoners that were too big, to reduce the number of fights and other incidents by keeping one hand occupied keeping their pants up. The thinking was the last thing most people would want to do in prison is drop trou.

Apparently it backfired and became an “I’ve done time” status symbol for former prisoners, then it bled over into just being cool. Not sure how accurate that story was, but it was nearly 20 years ago and the style is still out there. Each time I see it, I wonder how true that story was and what the teens and young adults who wear their pants halfway down to their knees would think if they knew the supposed story behind the fashion.

Sarah Jesudason ~ This is the second reference to saggy pants being a “prison cred” thing I’ve seen today. But my mental image of what prisoners wear is jumpsuits, not jeans and shirts. Alrighty, who on PubLib has done time and wants to comment on their attire in the Big House?

Carolyn Rawles-Heiser – Corvallis, OR ~ Regarding prison attire–when I went on a tour of the Nevada State Prison a few years ago as part of a state commission, we were told not to wear denim because the prisoners wore denim jeans and blue workshirts, and if there were a riot or disturbance, the guards would be able to pick the visitors out more easily (and not shoot us, I suppose).

Ancient Cowboy (Templar) Belt

Kathleen Stipek ~ I have seen young men sporting the droopy drawers look who accessorize with belts. In a few cases, I have seen enormous cowboy-style buckles on those belts which seem to be pressing on what is, in most gentlemen, a very sensitive spot. I guess it is a willingness to suffer for fashion akin to a woman’s wearing 4-inch stilettos. As someone who prefers to sacrifice style for comfort, I don’t get it, but then I don’t have to. The entertainment value is enormous, and in these troubled times, a good giggle never hurt anybody.

Steve Benson ~ Sagging pants was a big issue for a recent Dallas, Texas mayor. The link is to an article about it and includes picture of a billboard and a rap song from his campaign against sagging pants. http://www.npr.org/tablet/#story/?storyId=15534306

Jesse Ephraim ~ It doesn’t bother me at all, as long as they are wearing underwear. It’s not my job to police fashion trends.

Brenda McKinley – Newtown, CT ~ I keep waiting for someone to request: Enough already, can we please drop the saggy pants? On the other hand…I guess that’s the fear that started this whole thing.

A sixteen year old son wanted to borrow the family car. Father said, “Son, when you bring up your grades to a B average, and study your Bible more, and cut your hair, then we will talk about you using the car.” So, the son brought up his grades to a B average and started reading the Bible more. He went to his Dad and said,” Dad, I’ve been reading the Bible more and Samson had long hair, Noah and Moses had long hair, and there is reason to believe that Jesus had long hair.” To which the Dad replied, “Yes son, and to get around, they all walked.”

Jo Choto ~ Judging by the overwhelming response to sagging pants, may I suggest the following topics for another free for all:

Patrons that leave a cigarette-stink on library items;

Patrons who ask for your help, then get on their cell phone but expect
that somehow you continue to assist them;

Patrons who stand in a line six or eight deep for some time, but wait
until they reach the desk before spending 10 minutes looking for their
library card;

Patrons who fail to follow instructions for self check out and then
complain that the machine doesn’t work.

Steve Benson ~ And furthermore . . . Men in green or red plaid golf slacks should be banned from public view as should older gentlemen who pull their slacks halfway up to their chin.